United Spirits Limited

The United
Spirits Limited (USL) - the flagship company of
the Bangalore-headquartered UB group is now the
world’s second largest in terms of volume of
beverage sales.

The UB Group chairman
Vijay Mallya announced in Bangalore that USL has
grabbed the second spot from the Paris
headquartered Pernod Ricard Company. The No. 1
spirits company in the world is the London- based
Diageo Company.

“While the
world’s four biggest spirits brands —
Smirnoff, Bacardi, Johnnie Walker and Absolut,
collectively lost 4 million cases, USL’s
market share grew to 59 per cent with over 100
million cases in the operative segments. In the
last 25 years, USL has sold a total of 740
million cases of spirits,” the liquor baron
said.

According to figures released by
the company the UB Group sells 6,735 bottles of
spirits every minute. Their beer sales stand at
2,300 bottles of beer every
minute.

The group also
announced that its beer division crossed sales of
100 million cases in the financial year 2010. In
total, the UB group’s alcohol business
recorded a retail sales value of Rs 38,200 crore
for the financial year 2010.

“It
wasn’t long ago that we were merely a 3
million case company. We have created history in
the world of beverage alcohol by selling 740
million cases in about a quarter of a century.
The USL has a 59 per cent market share in India
in the segments it operates in,” said
Mr. Vijay Mallya.